So, I used to be a huge fan of this podcast, The Pessimists Archive, which catalogued all the times when people freaked out over stuff that seems silly today.

But the thing is: We’ve also failed to freak out sufficiently over some pretty important stuff, and people who were mocked at the time have later been proven to be right.

And then there’s also the paradox of risk management: Taking a risk seriously and working to mitigate it often makes the risk not materialize, making it look like the risk mitigation was a wasted effort.

All that is to say: You really should take each case on its own merits.